Bleeding Gods- Dodekathlon, The Gore Behind Hercules

Dutch blackened death metal band Bleeding Gods has unleashed a phenomenal record, titled Dodekathlon, a story of gore, and labours of Hercules. This tale is depicted with brutal sounds of classical music blended majestically with blackened death metal. A story worth listening to, one that will sweep you off your feet. We had the chance to chat with Ramon Ploeg about the process of the album and the current line up, check it our down below. Make sure to get your copy of this amazing album out now via Nuclear Blast Records.

The new album Dodekathlon is out world wide as we speak, what goes through your mind now that you see your creation out for the world to enjoy?

“The album Dodekathlon is released today, it is big and important we are very excited. It has always been a big dream for us since I play guitar for 24 years now, I always wanted to make metal andmusic of course. I had only one dream and that was to become a Nuclear Blast artists; I had to work hard for it.”

The story of Hercules’ labors is brutal and a band like Bleeding Gods can tell this story with magnificent music, how did you go about composing the majestic sounds of Dodekathlon?

“We started writing the first riffs somewhere around two and a half years ago, we wanted to make more music than only to the face value of death metal. We are musicians and Rutger Van Noordenburg has a classicalmusic background. We initially wrote about 16-18 total songs, deleted some stuff and changed stuff as we would work. Mark, our singer is like a walking library and knows all the stuff about history and big fan of the 12 labors of Hercules. We could write 12 tracks right now and we had 18, it took in total about a year to chose the right tracks for this album but also the writing of lyrics and vocal lines.”

In terms of recording what was the process for Dodekathlon?

“All the basic songs were already written and Dann Klemann (drummer) like that, it became a real band process.I start but writing basic riffs and skeleton songs, send it to the rest, Dann did his drums parts, soon after we did solos and second guitar from June until the first week of Septemeber. The last process was quick, we wanted to take our time, that is recording under pressure and build a great package.”

With five years on the trenches and a couple of line up changes, is this the definite and ideal Bleeding God’s line up?

“Yes, we are happy with the line up now, it works togerther for us it has always been about competition. All the noses and heads are in the right mind, and direction we are sort of a family, hopefully this line up will stay, I cant look in the future but totally hope this is it.”

How easy was it for you to recruit Dann Klemann as you new drummer?

“I think it took us almost a year to find the right drummer for the band. For us, it needs to be ok on a personal level but of course on the professional level he has to be good. We were looking for the good package, some drummers don’t have time for the band, andhe was a friend already it took him one month of listening to the tracks, he learned them, it was a difficult and important decision he knew we were almost signed with Nuclear Blast, it was tough to make a call with out a deal of course.”

I saw the making of the music video from “Feast To Beast”, along with the actual video itself, this is a concept album would you be making any videos that depict the story it self?

“We really don’t know yet, we have to choose new song for the video. That was the first single and first video clip. I know there is a lot of great video clips with a lot of stories, but we wanted to do more of a live experience video, so only band shots. I think we are gonna make a lot more videos it is just too early in the year to determine what video, the content and such.”

Tour wise are you planning on coming to the United States?

“It is all in the planning, there isnothing concrete yet; but we are talking to promoters and booking agencies. Ithink touring USA is priority number 2 when Europe is priority one, its a difficult process for European bands to travel to the States, hence we will focus on Europe first then work our way to America.”

What track was more complex to track down?

“All songs were complex, there are some easier songs, but also some difficult and fast songs of course. The song “Triple Anger” was one of the hardest including “Multiple Decapitation” because of all the parts we needed to let some parts for Martin for all the keys and orchestras. if you remove all it is still a regular death metal album.”

You did metal with classical sounds in this album how did you come up with that concept?

“In 2016 we recorded three track promo with 3 new songs on it, and Martin Foul from England, former Cradle of Filth keyboard player did a phenomenal job. I asked him if he could do something with keyboard and orchestra, maybe it would sound good. We liked it and we told him we wanted to have his music on it, he stunt us and we decided to do the album like this. We added a classical track too, combined it with all and you have what Dodekathlon is about.”

We closed the interview with a few notes, and personal chat about the album itself. This talented musician has accomplished a life dream and that was to become a Nuclear Blast artist. With Bleeding Gods on the metal battlefield we can assure you will rage and be blown away by their sound. Dodekathlon is out now and it’s sound will reign for years to come, get your copy.